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I recently received this question “Why do you curse your enemies when Paul says at Romans 12:14 “Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not?” And “if thine enemy hunger, feed him” and Mat. 5:44 Love your enemies; do good to them that hate you, pray for them that despitefully use you.”
First of all, 99.9% of the Churches in this county and the faux Christians that go in them do not have enemies. They don’t have enemies because they are not engaged in the wars of the Lord, they sit on the sidelines. They are ashamed of the Gospel and draw back unto perdition (Heb. 10:37-38). Christ, Elijah, Paul, John the Baptist, Stephen, David, Peter, and the prophets had powerful enemies. They had powerful enemies for their preaching. We have powerful enemies, it is a sign that we are on the right path. Lu 6:26 Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets.
The verses about curse not your enemies speak to the general practice of the Jews of private cursing and private revenge against their enemies which the Jews did by tradition. Paul specifies it later in Romans 12: at verse 19 Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves (no private revenge), but rather give place unto wrath (no private wrath, no getting even): for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.The crux of all of these verses in the New Testament is that there is no private revenge either against brethren or the ungodly.
The Lord instituted Cities of Refuge in the Old Testament for this very reason because the Jews and all flesh is so prone to private revenge and to taking matters into their own hands.
Here is the proof text about what the New Testament is talking about. Remember Shimei? When King David was escaping from Absalom who had pulled off a military Coup in 2nd Sam. 16., a man named Shimei came out andwas CURSING David and physically casting stones at David and at all his servants of David. 2nd Sam. 16:7 “And thus said Shimei when he CURSED come out, thou bloody man, and thou man of Belial:” He cursed him by calling him a bloody man and he was cursing him the equivalent of calling him a “son of a bitch” – curse words – he was cursing his enemy. Shimei’s cursing continues: “The LORD hath returned upon thee all the blood of the house of Saul, in whose stead thou hast reigned; and the LORD hath delivered the kingdom into the hand of Absalom thy son: and, behold, thou art taken in thy mischief, because thou art a bloody man.”
Shimei was not trying to save David. Shimei was not trying to preach to David. Shimei was not talking to David to try and get him to repent, like Nathan did. Shimei was not preaching and warning the nation to stop their awful sinning or face destruction. Shimei had no good motive here but wanted to shame David in hatred, when David had fallen. Shimei used that opportunity to take revenge against David because Shimei was related to Saul. David was about to have his head cut off.David was running for his life, and he shortly would have been dead butfor the mercy and deliverance or our Lord. That is not what we are supposed to do.NO, not to our beloved fellow laborers and not to the rebels against God. This is the cursing the New Testament warns against.
One of David’s captain’s says “ Let me take his head off.” David said no, NO! You are not going to do any physical harm to him. David, did not allow him to render evil for evil. No rendering evil for evil. David said plainly that these providences unfold from the hand of God, so say the servants of God, so say all men when God permits them to think straight about the matter.
The Westboro Baptist Church does not curse our enemies.Period. We do not seek revenge against our enemies. We do not curse or purport to do them evil. We do not have wrath against our enemies.Westboro Baptist Church is not violent (2nd Cor. 10:4-5) For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty (our words are mighty) through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. And we have never had personal insolence and malice toward anyone.
You cannot call preaching the word of God cursing.
2 Tim. 4:1-2 I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; 2 Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.
We tell you unapologetically like Jeremiah in Jer. 26: 3-5 Hearken unto us, every man,turn from your evil way, that God may repent of the evil which he purposes to do unto you because of your evil doings. That is not cursing your enemies. For thus saith the LORD; If ye will not hearken to me, to walk in my law, which I have set before you, To hearken to the words of my servants the prophets, whom I sent unto you, both rising up early, and sending them, but ye have not hearkened;6 Then will I make this city a curse to all the nations of the earth. Destruction comes.
Here is what we say to everyone Repent, stop the evil doings, hearken unto us and walk with us the way is good. Paul says at Rom 12:18 If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. Yes, and we say that too, but that doesn’t mean Paul didn’t vehemently preach against fornication, sodomy, adultery, idol worship and all the rest. It doesn’t mean kiss sodomite backside. Preach the word, when they want to hear it and when they do NOT want to hear it! Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. (2 Tim. 4:2) Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, show my people their transgression (Isaiah 58:1).
We render blessings to our enemies by begging them to repent and never giving up or deciding to shut up to their detriment. We do good to our enemies by preaching to them the Word of God (Lev. 19:17-18), and giving them the bread of life. We have not pulled a Jonah, and left from preaching because we wanted God to destroy our enemies. We have spent 22 years preaching constantly about the coming destruction of this world and trying to convince you to flee the wrath not with pleasing words of men, but as the sons of thunder. By Laying the axe to the root of the tree like John the Baptist. And,oh, How many times have I prayed to the Lord for his enemies to repent? It is certainly hundreds of times.
But as an example to us, upon whom the ends of the world have come, there came a time in the days of Jeremiah, just before Judah was annihilated by the Babylonians when God told him not to pray for Israel.
Jer. 15: 1 Then said the LORD unto me, Though Moses and Samuel (great men of God) stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward this people: cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth. In Jer. 7:16 The Lord says Therefore pray not thou for this people Jeremiah, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee. He says the same thing in Jer. 11:14, and 14:11.
The time is here beloved. It will do no good for Westboro Baptist Church to pray for this wicked and proudly sinful nation. Even if we wanted to, God would not hear our prayer. You can’t murder 1 billion innocent babes and commit fornication, adultery, sodomy and worship false Gods worldwide and not incur the everlasting wrath of God. Then, as if that were not bad enough, this nation is leading the way to pimp same-sex marriage across the globe! Surely you know that your destruction is imminent!
Amen.